It is a common practice in hospitals to introduce drugs to a patient through an intravenous feeding line whenever that patient is being fed intravenously. It is obvious that such a practice avoids the pain of repeated injections which accompany direct injection from a hypodermic needle, but it also avoids the danger of infection. Further, the injection into the intravenous feeding liquid causes the drug to be diluted by the liquid and therefore fed more slowly to the patient.
The present invention is directed to providing a site, or location in an intravenous feeding tube through which the drug may be administered and has the advantages that it is kept sterile even at increased liquid pressure, and is selfsealing so that it may be used repeatedly while the patient is being fed intravenously. It is especially designed for use with intravenous feeding pumps, in which case there is an internal build-up which causes leakage problems if conventional sites are used.